The Centre, P.C. - Plastic Surgery Blog

Fitting Plastic Surgery Into Your Schedule - Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The staff at The Centre, P.C. knows well that most people have very busy schedules these days. We know you may be juggling a full-time job with various evening commitments and a family to care for. We always try to accommodate our patients to make their experience with us as convenient as possible.

We are open Monday through Friday between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Your procedures can be scheduled so you can leave here comfortably by 5:00 p.m. and be home early enough to still have the evening available. You can schedule your procedures as far ahead as you would like, to accommodate other events or unknown factors coming up in your own life.

If you will be needing any prescription medications after your surgery, your physician will give you that prescription ahead of time so that you can fill it at your leisure and have it ready to use. We will also give you some written pre- and post-operative instructions ahead of time. If they call for any particular actions on your part, you will have extra time to take care of that.

Some surgeries, such as breast augmentation and abdominoplasty require a week or two of recovery time. Be sure to make arrangements ahead of time so that you will be able to rest fully. The days and weeks immediately after your surgery are very important for a successful outcome. You may have dressings to change, required bedrest perhaps with your head elevated (depending on what procedure you had), special garments to wear, and requirements or limitations as to bathing. You may need transportation to your follow-up appointments.

If possible, arrange for a friend or family member to be with you for awhile as an assistant or “nurse”. Pamper yourself by allowing someone to cook for you, bring in the mail and newspaper, run the washing machine etc. A bit of planning and forethought can vastly enhance your recovery time and maximize your surgery benefits.

For more information on the cosmetic procedures we offer, please call or email our office for a personal consultation.

Fitting Plastic Surgery Into Your Budget - Friday, September 26, 2008

At The Centre, P.C., we know that most people have tight budgets. We want to help with fitting your desired cosmetic procedures into your budget comfortably. We are dedicated to promoting your peace of mind in this respect and to making financing arrangements as quick and easy as possible.

We also know that most cosmetic surgeries are not covered by health insurance companies. We utilize the services of two medical financing companies to help you find the best payment options, including interest free financing for up to 24 months. You can finance the full amount with no money down.

• CapitalOne – offers two ways to apply. You can use their online form, or call them at a toll-free number. There are no application fees and they take only minutes to respond with their decision. They offer a payment calculator online for your convenience. Interest rates vary according to the total payment amount and your credit standing. They start at 1.99%.
• CareCredit – also offers two ways to apply. One is an online form; or you can download and print their application and bring it to us. The approval decision is speedy. They have a variety of plans and we will let you know which of their plans we offer. They operate like a credit card so that after one approval process you can use them for other health services, such as our medical spa.

Please see our Financing page for more information. Our staff is always available to discuss financing with you. If you would like to set up a personal consultation, please call or email our office today.

Choosing the Right Injectable Filler - Sunday, September 21, 2008

Soft tissue fillers are an easy and effective way to restore lost smoothness and plumpness to the face. There are a great many of them available, but we offer the best three.

Restylane is a non-animal filler that uses hyaluronic acid. That is a substance naturally found in the body, and its great virtue for enhancing youthfulness is that it attracts water. As we age, the body tends to become drier, which contributes to lines and wrinkles in the skin.

Restylane is injected into the dermal layer (below the upper epidermis), and deposits a hyaluronic-acid-based gel. The hyaluronic acid molecules can bind to many times their own weight of water. This creates more volume beneath the skin surface, smoothing out the surface lines and wrinkles.

Treatments last for about six months and you can have a touch-up procedure to keep the youthful look as long as you would like.

Radiesse does not contain hyaluronic acid, and works differently. It contains microspheres of calcium hydroxylapatite in a biocompatible gel. Like Restylane, it is injected into the dermal layer, where it deposits these tiny spheres in amongst the natural collagen fibers.

As the Radiesse gel is absorbed by the body, the microspheres give volume to the skin and provide a substitute for the declining amounts of collagen that aging skin produces. Normally there is a robust collagen and elastin matrix in the dermis, which supports the skin surface. As we age, the reduced collagen weakens that support, contributing to little valleys in the skin -- fine lines and wrinkles. Radiesse results can last up to a full year.

AlloDerm is a soft and flexible implant made from donor tissue. The natural body cells will grow into it and hold it in place for several years. It replaces lost collagen in the skin -- the collagen and elastin matrix which supports a youthful skin.

Being made from human tissue, it is very safe. It is processed and comes from a U.S. tissue bank, just as transplantable organs do, such as a heart or kidney. You could have it done in conjunction with laser skin resurfacing or a chemical peel.

If you would like to have a personal consultation and learn more about all the ways we can refresh your skin and rejuvenate your entire appearance, please call or email our office.

Increase Your Confidence With Cosmetic Surgery - Friday, September 19, 2008

We live in a culture which places heavy emphasis on a person's physical appearance. Most of us spend hours each day watching exceptionally nice-looking people telling us the news, acting in movies, even predicting the weather. And there is all the print media too, filled with glamorous photos.

We tend to forget that all of these people are pampered by hair stylists, make-up artists, lighting experts and fashion consultants. These days, many of them have had cosmetic surgery as well, or at least a few Botox Cosmetic injections. Add to all that the TV programs featuring specially-chosen people having makeovers, making it appear as if it's a simple thing to rejuvenate your entire appearance practically overnight.

This daily onslaught of idealized beauty leaves many of us normal people feeling a bit inadequate, and ruefully noticing the extra fine line near the lips, or extra pound at the waistline.

Many Options to Choose From

In these days of safe and sophisticated cosmetic surgery -- both invasive and non-invasive -- there is no need for anyone to lose confidence. At The Centre, P.C., we offer a wide array of cosmetic procedures designed to restore smoothness to the skin, slimness and nice proportions to the body, and youthful alertness to the face.

The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) lists Liposuction and Breast Augmentation as the top two cosmetic surgeries for 2007. Right after them come eyelid surgery and tummy tucks. There is no need to feel isolated in your appearance worries, because hundreds of thousands of other people are choosing to have these procedures done every year.

Our list of skin rejuvenation offerings is also long. Just considering facials alone, there are six kinds to choose from. Soft tissue fillers can plump out the face in just the areas you need it, and if you would like to go all the way to a full facelift, we offer those, along with many other rejuvenating facial surgeries.

To learn more about the many ways you can improve your appearance, please contact us to arrange a personal consultation. Our doctors give clear answers and are happy to explain how procedures work.

Classic Style -- Luscious Lips and a Tiny Waist - Thursday, September 18, 2008

And a hat.

You may recognize this look as dating from the 1940s, but lately it has been making a bit of a come-back.

Full lips certainly do have a youthful and attractive look. We offer lip enhancement using AlloDerm implants. AlloDerm is a biomedical substance created by LifeCell Corporation in California and it received FDA approval back in 1993 for augmenting the lips.

If your lips are naturally thin, or if they have become thinner with age, you might be a good candidate for this cosmetic procedure. Some people have asymmetrical lips, or drooping or very pale lips. There are also those thin lines that appear around the lips as we age.

All these conditions can be beautifully treated with AlloDerm implants. It is a very safe outpatient procedure using local anesthetic (and a mild sedative if you would prefer), which requires about two weeks for recovery. Results last for two to five years.

A small waist gives that feminine hourglass look. We offer Vaser LipoSelection, a form of ultrasonic liposuction, to remove fatty tissue from specific body areas. If you have used exercise and a good diet to lose weight, but find that the waistline stubbornly refuses to slim down, perhaps LipoSelection can achieve that for you and restore your youthful contour.

LipoSelection requires only very small incisions, as it uses ultrasonic probes which are smaller than the standard liposuction implements. Being a less invasive procedure than traditional liposuction, it involves less bruising and needs less recovery time.

AlloDerm and LipoSelection can help with the lips and waistline, but we'll have to let you buy your own hat.

Please call or email us at The Centre, P.C. One of our cosmetic surgeons will be glad to give you a personal consultation.

The Centre Offers an Alternative for Football Widows - Friday, September 05, 2008

With the start of the pro football season, many women across the country are being reminded of a particularly unpleasant fact of life: husbands are wont to sit down in front of the television, either at home, at a friend's or relative's house, or at a bar, for the duration of games televised. During this time, they have been known to neglect everything besides ball, beer, and snacks. This includes housework, children, and, of course, wives. Football widowhood affects millions of women from coast to coast. For women of northern Indiana and southern Michigan, the worst time is college football season. Whether your husband is a Wolverine, a Spartan, a Boilermaker, or even a Fighting Irish fan, you know you will not see hide nor hair of him any Saturday this fall.

But women of northern Indiana, southern Michigan and Chicago have an option besides hanging around feeling neglected. Instead, a woman can schedule a pampering session with the Centre, P.C. A full range of treatments are available to make your skin healthier and make you feel healthier and more centred. First, the Centre offers massage sessions to relax your body and enrich your spirit. Depending on your preferences, choose from our massage menu, or have a customized massage designed to suit your personal needs.

You can also arrange for a body wrap and lymphatic firming massage to purify the body through exfoliation and detoxification. You can follow your wrap with a special lymphatic firming massage that can improve your body's ability to heal and cleanse itself.

Next, you can improve your skin's health with our wide range of available skin treatments. We offer many different varieties of Facials, including express facials, deep pore cleansing facials, and herbal rejuvenating facials. For a little bit deeper impact, you can arrange a peel such as a glycolic peel or Green Peel^®, or even decide on microdermabrasion.

When you get home from your day at The Centre, P.C. you will look so good, your husband won't be able to ignore you, and feel so good you won't care. Contact The Centre, P.C. today to schedule an appointment.

Which Looks Best: Enhanced or Natural Breasts? - Tuesday, September 02, 2008

In Touch Weekly is a magazine that focuses on celebrities -- their news, relationships, beauty, fashion and lifestyle. It was launched in 2002 and has the same editor and publisher as its sister magazine called Life & Style Weekly. When it was launched, the publishers stated that their target audience was:

"... the daughter of the woman who in the mid-70s would have started reading People."

So who would that be? Well, those daughters would be in their 20s now, and since the cost of In Touch Weekly is a third less than the cost of People, perhaps they would be in the lower-middle income range, or the lower-income range. Perhaps also they would not be avid readers, since the average In Touch article is about two pages long and consists mostly of pictures.

When explaining the magazine's early success, the editor stated:

"We're the first magazine to be brave enough to say that people don't
read magazines anymore. They look at them."

"Best Breast" Poll

In Touch Weekly recently ran a "Best Breast" poll. According to their readers, who look more than they read, the celebrities with the best-looking breasts are:

• Jessica Simpson
• Tyra Banks
• Scarlett Johansson
• Carmen Electra
• Lindsay Lohan
• Katherine Heigl
• Audrina Patridge
• Jennifer Aniston
• Megan Fox
• Beyonce Knowles

Further, these reader-looker-judges opined that about half of these celebrities had had breast augmentation done, but they didn't agree on which individuals that included. What can we make of this?

Three Conclusions We Can Draw

• An augmented breast looks as good as a natural one
• It's hard to tell when a woman has breast implants
• The best-looking breasts are those which match a woman's overall size and shape -- because not everyone in that list has large breasts. Aniston and Lohan, for example, have moderate sizes and Patridge and Fox have fairly small sizes.

If you would like to learn more about how best to enhance your own breasts, please call or email us at The Centre, P.C. One of our cosmetic surgeons will be glad to give you a personal consultation.